Amid criticism of the growing number of unused coronavirus vaccines on shelves across the country, a senior federal official said on Wednesday that states should vaccinate older and more vulnerable Americans.
“States can also accelerate the administration of the vaccine, by now supplying vaccines to broader populations now,” said Alex Azar, secretary of Human Services and Health, during an interview. “There is no reason why states need to complete, say, vaccination for all health care providers before opening vaccination to older Americans or other especially vulnerable populations.”
Although a panel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised to prioritize frontline medical workers and long-term care facilities, states decide who should be first in line for vaccines. The panel, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), noted earlier that there is likely to be overlap between phases.
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Azar referred to a connection with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said the state would prioritize inoculating people aged 65 and over in a change to federal recommendations.
DeSantis told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that Florida was the first US state to start vaccinating residents of long-term care facilities and the population over 65.
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During Wednesday’s briefing, Azar said it would be better to vaccinate low-priority individuals than to let the vaccines remain unused.
“It would be much better to act quickly and end up vaccinating some low priority people than to leave vaccines stopped while states try to micromanage this process,” said Azar. “Faster administration can save lives now, which means that we cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”
Azar said the pace of vaccinations has “increased substantially in the past few days”, and he has joined other federal officials in the hope that the pace of vaccinations will accelerate rapidly in the coming weeks. Indeed, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, on a phone call on Wednesday expressed high hopes for an accelerated rate of vaccination in the coming weeks amid resounding criticism of a slow effort to national vaccination.
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Messonnier said the new vaccines were launched around the holidays, and now that the holidays are over, she expects the rate of vaccination to “increase very quickly”.
On Thursday morning, the United States distributed more than 17.3 million doses and at least 5.3 million doses went into the arms of Americans, according to data compiled by the CDC.